that opposing the small homestead interests or small cattle interests was a lost cause. was actually more 20th-century homesteading in wyoming then there was 19th-century. homesteading continue to go on. inevitablyoperations became much smaller. a few of the ranches that were involved in this story actually still exists and still are around. they survived all of that time. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring casper, wyoming. our team recently traveled there to learn about its rich history.

learn more about castor and other stops on c-span's cities to her at c-span.org/localcontent. you are watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. now a visit to the nra's national firearms museum in fairfax, virginia to see its collection of guns and learn about the role firearms have played over the course of american history. >> welcome to the nra national firearms museum. i am the museum director. we are going to go to the museum, take a look at the history of americans and their firearms. the earliest with precolonial days and work through current times. we will look at the role firearms have played in terms of the settlement and expansion of america, the role firearms have played in military and sporting

and personal shooting. we will see the guns of champions, the guns of presidents and heroes, and we will see some great pieces of art. the national firearms museum is -- is atheadquarters the nra headquarters in fairfax, virginia. we are custodians of about 7000 firearms that have been donated to us over the past 75 years. we have about 3000 on display here. what i want people to come away with the museum with beyond the, that is a lot of cool guidance, --ch is very important to us it's an understanding of the unique relationship between americans and their firearms and the very integral role firearms have played in the history of

america. we have phil schreier, senior curator at the national firearms museum, and we are starting in the robert e petersen gallery. mr. peterson was a magazine publisher and had one of the finest if not the finest firearms collections in the country. what you see is the robert peterson gallery, the finest single room of firearms anywhere in the country. firearms she 2011 left, the museum kicked what we could display. -- picked what we could display. perhaps one of the finest he royal, was the grand winchester model 21 which is considered the finest winchester side-by-side shotgun ever manufactured. it is the finest engraved on the

one in existence, and it his favorite labrador retriever, king bauck. >> in contrast to the carved engraving is a relatively new stier -- style of engraving. this has only been widely done in the last 30-40 years. and i say widely done, there have been very few people who have mastered it. instead of a three dimensional carving, this type of engraving is actually done by hand pressing literally hundreds of thousands or even millions of tiny individual dots into the depth, angle,in and pressure, and creating these incredible scenes you see on shotguns. cene,ct, this gargoyle that is all done with hand pressed dots in the bowling of style.

annie oakley can be considered to be the first american female superstar. she was an entertainer. she was discovered when frank butler, an exhibition shooter, was traveling town to town, and he had always in an introduction to his show, he would challenge the best shooters of the town he went to to a shooting contest. theye town they went to, brought out this 15-year-old girl, and she shot on my side and actually beat him. he came back a year later, married her, and from then on, they traveled as exhibition shooters. and he became the star. have a beautiful shotgun. it has an inlaid plaque on the side of it that says "to annie oakley, little missy, from colonel william f cody." that is buffalo bill. the london 1890. we can guess what the occasion might have been. at that time, annie oakley was

touring with the wild west show in london and europe, and she had run out of gunpowder. her some of lent his powder. it was the wrong type, and it blew up her shotgun. this might have been a i'm sorry gift. >> one of his interests in addition to the finest engraved designedgetting guns, and invented by dr. richard jordan gatling of north carolina in 1861. tosaw it as his contribution mankind, not only just to the war effort, but for mankind. if he came up with a super weapon that could kill so effectively, so rapidly, then people would just cease to want to go to war against anybody that was armed with such a gun. was a series of

barrels that were aligned that allowed the operator to crank a handle and fire the gun just as fast as they could rotate the handle or two to the gun said. it was air cooled by the scanning of the multiple barrels. mr. petersen had a collection of 10 of them we have on display. right now, we're are pretty certain that 10 gatling guns on public exhibition is the largest collection anywhere in the world. as we will see very shortly, a gatling gun that literally wrote itself into the pages of american history on july 1, 1898. we have oneallery, of my favorite artifacts in the museum. this particular exhibit is by harrington and richardson. 1876 for then philadelphia centennial exposition. this was considered by many to sort of the field of a world fair type of event.

countries were invited from all over the world. manufacturers were exhibiting their finest wares. age and are put together this beautiful exhibit cabinet that won an award. finisheshe various they could apply to it. this particular piece not only has these wonderful decorated revolvers and it, but it is also the only surviving exhibit that is still intact from that it can 76 philadelphia centennial -- 1876t from that philadelphia centennial. other oddities, and they are in this glass tabletop display case. the centerpiece is a sundial gun. that served as a timepiece. you could load a blank powdered ,harge into the little cannon and you could adjust the

magnifying glass so that at a certain time of day, it would fire, and you would know to go back to lunch or whatever it had been time for. you also have some of the early attempts at repeating firearms. there's an 18-shot pepper box revolver from the mid-1800s. there is a four-barrel flintlock. it is arranged to where there are two barrels on top that can be fired, and then the entire cluster can be rotated to have two more shots. harmonica-style gun, which was an early competitor for the revolver for a repeating handgun, where instead of a rotating cylinder, there is a bar with successive charges in it that can be slid from one round to the next as successive shots are needed. there are a number of firearms incorporating blades, including this beautiful gold plated pistol with the ivory grips that came out of russian royalty, a nephew of bizarre -- the czar.

there is a short sword here with a flintlock pistol mounted on it. i was actually for boar hunting. it was tradition in europe hunting to hunt the boar with that. a couple of odd looking guns, this one with a giant spring, and then this flintlock over here with a circular device on are not actually guns. they are gunpowder testers. these were made to test the power of black powder. you had to be sure that the power level of the powder was neither too much nor too little for its intended use. >> the museum as it opened in 19 exhibits over 15,000 galleries exhibiting different kinds of firearms. we laid the galleries out in a chronological order so the average visitor could come

through and see the whole development, the evolution of firearms and how it applies to american history and our own heritage. in this case, we have one of the oldest guns on display in america, one of the oldest guns in the world actually. it is called a hand cannon. tois just a gigantic iron with a poll that runs from the muscle to the breach and a little perpendicular hole, the event where you can prime and fire the gun. this was excavated from the site at a castle in germany, and it was thought to have been lost year -- left there in the 1353. it is probably one of the oldest guns on display in america. it is one of the world's first guns, which in effect were actually cannons. the large that we moved it onto the shoulder-sized guns. jim has a spectacular piece that is not only smaller but displays the wheel lock mechanism. >> just as simple as the hand

cannon was that he just showed you, a successor that followed soon after was complicated. inn people ask me, what is the nra museum, there are always two guns that i discuss as bookends that illustrate the span of the guns we have here. this is one of them. this is a wheel lock, complicated firearm. it came over on the mayflower with pilgrim john alden. when i explain what we have in the museum, i say we go from one of the very first firearms on the northeastern american comment and we go through -- continental and we go through a revolver that was recovered from the ashes of the world trade center, and everything in between. to design and build a museum with display cases, galleries that are evocative of the time period the firearms

were used. here we are in the colonial house, attempting to tell the story of the early colonial period and the war of independence, 1775-1781. we are looking at the painting, which we had to go to london, england to find. it is called "the shot heard round the world." it is one of the most beautifully rendered illustrative descriptions of the very first shots fired at lexington green on the morning , 1775.l 19 this kind of tells the story of that very first encounter with the british. the question that a lot of people have, and i had as a little kid growing up, why was it that one misty morning in april when 70 minutemen answer the call up all revere the night before and lined up on lexington green?

captain parker looked at his men and said, don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here. 300 red coated british regulars appeared from cambridge. a shot was fired, and the american revolution began. why was that morning any different from the others? the truth that we don't find in the history books is that theral gage, commanding british regiment, had given him written orders that morning to go from cambridge to this place conquered via lexington and powder,ll ammunition, and artillery. they were after the guns that morning. that was the line in the sand. that was the point of no return. that is what started the war for independence. that is what led america on its path we still are traveling down today of freedom and liberty and

how firearms played that role and not only acquiring our liberty but maintaining it ever since. when we are talking about purely and americanarms innovations, a lot of different things can be brought to the table for conversation. one of the earliest is what we call the american long rifle. thes something called pennsylvania or kentucky. immigrants from europe brought from all corners of your rifle making skills -- of europe rifle making skills and began to set up shops in every colony and every state in the union and manufactured guns. you can look at these long rifle we have right here, and just by looking at the curvature of the what, you can tell exactly county and what state these long

rifles are from. they are truly works of american folk art and are very valuable just in their own right today. perhaps one of the most historically significant guns in the collection, in my opinion, is this wonderful little air .ifle originally, this gun was designed by an italian for the austrian army to use against napoleon. how one ended up in the hands of the corps of discovery, or as we call it the lewis and clark expedition from 18 oh 3-1806, is a mystery, but we do know they had a gun very similar to this one right here. so muchon why we place historical value on this particular firearm is because in the journals of the lewis and lewis writesion, about this gun not only once but in 39 separate entries. each entry is pretty much similar to the one before. he said something along the lines of, today we met the men

dance at the headwaters of the missouri river. had them then paraded in front of them, ordered the unfurling of the regimental and national colors. we walked in under five and drawn. the menuced myself and to the chieftains of the tribe, presented them coins bearing the likeness of president jefferson, and to hands clasped in friendship. then i demonstrated the air rifle, to which they all found to be in wonderment and amazement. there is the key. newy single time he meets a tribe of indians, he demonstrates the air rifle. to read into this that and never during the trip did he ever allowed the indians to actually gain access to the vault. thisndians, when they saw repeating rifle fired with great

accuracy and tremendous effect in power, almost unendingly, they were amazed. nobody had ever seen anything like that. they were very cordial, not knowing whether there was just one of these guns or 39 of them. it was kind of the idea of peace through the perception of superior firepower. this air rifle was able to thatnt such intimidation they were happy to be hosts and to move them onto the next tribes in the west. >> the kentucky rifle was the

first truly american rifle, the american long rifle, and it was perfect for the woods of the eastern u.s. as the american west change from kentucky, tennessee, and ohio to the great plains and rocky mountains, a different type of rifle was needed. that is where we see the introduction of the planes rifle. at this time, st. louis was the gateway to the west. this is where a lot of the trappers and pilgrims and settlers would buy their supplies to make the trip. this is where the hawk and brothers had their rightful shop. they created the plains rifle, which was a shorter barrel. it was a larger terrible than the american long rifle to deal with the larger game in the american west, the bison, the elk, the bears. it was a handier length to be carried easier on horseback. this represents the hawkins shot. this gentleman is cutting grooves and the rifle -- in the

rifle. he will walk back and forth 20 to get a single barrel finish. in the early 1800s, one of the main focuses of effort and firearms design was to try to develop an effective repeating rifle. sam colt is the guy who came up with the first widely adopted repeating firearm, but it was not success at first try. it was a matter of try, try again. he created a revolver with a revolving cylinder holding five rounds that could be advanced as fast as you could talk the hammer and pulled the trigger. for financial backing, demonstrating it to his father to try to get the financial backing, but it is said that the revolver blew up while he was demonstrating it, which discourage the financial backing. it is said that he went back to doing a number of things to earn his living. there is a report and view it to

her county fairs dressed in a --bine, building himself billing himself as dr. cold of calcutta. eventually, he got back into the manufacturing business in paterson, new jersey and came up what are now called colt paterson revolvers. they have a folding trigger that drops down on the trigger. they also were a miserable failure. she had gone out of business, inen up on these, but a man the u.s. mounted rifles who had served as a texas ranger had used these revolvers in texas and felt they were exactly what warsilitary needed for the and skirmishes along the texas-mexico border. and asksack to colt him to make 1000 of these for sale to the government. they needed to be bigger, heavier, and more powerful. sam walker, and this one became known as the walker model.

as you can see, it was a big, heavy revolver pushing almost five pounds in weight. it took a very heavy powder charge, to powerful for the metallurgy at the time, and out of the 1100 of these made, only about 10% survived. a number of those are found with cracked or broken cylinders. he shortened the cylinder, came out with the dragoon model, and from that point on, the colt firearms manufacturing company was out on a road to success and ecstatic itself as an iconic american firearms manufacturer. >> this crazy rude goldberg-esque contraption was designed by thomas blanchard and installed in the springfield on the massachusetts in the early 1800s. this is one of the first machines that started the american industrial movement, the industrial revolution. it is a stock making machine, and it works just like you would copy a key at a hardware store.

this is the beginning of interchangeable and mass-produced parts. we see this in the gun industry. we don't see this in any of the other industries burgeoning in america, especially in new england, during the 1800s, but it really manifested itself with this rifle right here. it was made right here in virginia, which is now unfortunately west virginia, up at harpers ferry, but it becomes not only one of the first military adopted breech loading firearms of the united states, but it also is one of the first guns to begin the use of manufacturing processes that see the development of interchangeability in parts, and yes, eventually assembly line production. letter jimot that was talking about from sam forer, texas ranger, asking

1000 guns, which he didn't have a factory to make them in, he turned to the one guy in new england who could do something junior,, eli whitney the son of the june -- of the gentleman who invented the cotton gin. whitney had a factory in new haven, connecticut, and he was able to turn out all 1000 cold locker pistols for the u.s. government and a six-month per -- in a six-month period of time. that is really where the industrial revolution begins in this country and spreads to the rest of the world. takes nine single action navy revolvers to the crystal palace in london in 1851 and displays them before prinz albert. the rest of the audience was toolutely aghast, shocked

see nine guns of being torn apart and reassembled without any care to the gun that they previously came from. everything up until this time had been hand fitted and filed. now you can have something rolled off a machine, make dozens of them per hour, and have quite a stock at the end of the day. in the past, these things would take weeks if not months to manufacture. of 1940, during a fireside chat, franklin roosevelt tells the nation that the dark storm clouds that have broken over europe are going to soon darken our shores. >> but all of our present efforts are not enough. we must have more ships, more guns, more planes, more of everything. we must be the great arsenal of democracy. us, this is an emergency as

serious as war itself. >> america must become the arsenal of democracy, he says, a year before pearl harbor. m1's anddo we make colt m111 revolvers and that's the firearms, we make enough to arm and equip the men uniform and put in million dollars -- millions of to defeat fascism in europe in 1945. this industrial revolution that gives us the a century almost later maintain the freedom that americans have so hard fought in the intervening years. >> in part two of our tour of firearms museum, we'll see guns of the civil war, thosed